X-title Timelines

This section is meant to be a comprehensive list of all issues of the various X-titles, as well as significant appearances by X-characters in other books, arranged in chronological order by their place in the history of the Marvel Universe, not date of publication. The focus here is on showing the continuity order of the books in relation to each other. Little, if any, detail is provided on each book; if you wanted details such as characters, creators, and synopsis, then please see the X-title Indexes page instead.

This information is currently available in two formats, having originated from two distinct FAQs. The "graph" format is essentially an acyclic directed graph, or "flow chart", with each node representing a single issue (or part of an issue or a range of issues), and each arc representing the known order of two nodes. The "list" format is essentially a singly-linked list, or "laundry list", with each issue (or range of issues) being ordered by best fit between all the other issues. The FAQs have each been broken into 11 pieces, and the segments are all arranged in pairs with common subject material together. These are the FAQs' names:

Each version has its own advantages. The graph format gives a more accurate representation of the order of the books, but it doesn't say what happens in each book. The list format says what happens in each book, but the order is less accurate. If you are looking for newer books in the 1994-1998 range (parts 9-10), you will need the list, as the graph never got that far. On the other hand, for future events (part 11) the graph is more complete and informative.

These FAQs will not be directly updated any further; rather, a brand new X-titles Continuity FAQ will be made here to superceed them. The new one will be constructed using 'formal proof' techniques, whereby each 'statement' of continuity order must be accompanied with evidence from the books; how we know that they are in this order. This new method should produce timelines that are more accurate than ever before, and easier to validate. Keeping that in mind, it would be best to save your first-hand continuity research and corrections for inclusion in the new FAQ, rather than asking me to change the current ones. I will provide an on-site forum for submitting your own research for inclusion (and you will get full credit).

Update: 2001 November 4, then 2004 August 18

While my promised update will take awhile yet to deliver, I strongly encourage you to look at Jimmy Petersson's Marvel Chronology Graph website. I discovered this gem yesterday when the author had sent me an email to introduce himself. As Jimmy explained, he got very inspired by the 2D continuity graphs that I made in my Timelines section. So he made a Java program that creates timeline graphs automatically using information at The Marvel Chronology Project, which lists what issues each Marvel character is in. You can download this customizable Java applet from his website and make it generate graphs following whatever set of characters you choose. While it uses the layout of my graphs, Jimmy has actually delivered on something I only promised to make (computer generated graphs) a couple years ago, and he has done it better than what I had in mind. Well done!

Other Useful Resources

RACMX Where Can I Find It FAQ: by Kate the Short
-- this rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks general FAQ is a definitive guide to what the xbooks are all about as well as a guide to the multitude of internet-based resources that the energetic and creative x-titles fans have made, including FAQs, websites, and discussion groups. Also check out her listing of other rac* FAQs.

MAP: Marvel Atlas Project: by Sean Kleefeld
-- A multi-resolution map of the earth that shows the locations of all the various important things in the Marvel universe. Very useful if you want to see where the various Marvel stories take place, and aren't up to discovering this trivia on your own. I was able to verify a couple sites I recognized such as Xavier's mansion (see Special Edition X-Men #1 story #2, 1983).

X-Men Continuity Hound: by Rajiv Mote
-- has some great resources, including: "The X-Men Comics Continuity Guide", a suggested reading order for Marvel's mutant books; "Uncanny X-Lore", a brief synopsis of the key pieces of lore in the X-Universe; "XDANGLER.RTF", a rich-text format file that lists the dangling plotlines (and their resolutions) in all the X-books since X-Men: Prime.

Annotated Index of X-Men Guest Appearances: by Joel Hahn
-- Known cameos, crossovers, guest appearances, etc. by characters and plots in and directly related to (in a comic-book sense) the X-Men/Marvel mutants.

The Marvel Chronology Project: by Russ Chappell
-- A painfully complete list of issue appearances for all your favorite characters. It is formatted with by characters name, with a list of issues they appear in following (no descriptions though).

The Unofficial Wolverine Chronology: by Ronald Byrd
-- A thorough narrative summary of Wolverine's less-well-known history as pieced together from hundreds of flashbacks and other historical references, from the late 1800s and later. "This chronology is intended to fill in the *blanks* of Wolverine's career, by presenting dozens of seemingly random strings of information in a reasonably coherent series. It goes into comparatively few details about his known adventures with Team X and even fewer details about his activities since joining the X-Men."

Onslaught index: by Paul O'Brien
-- "my complete guide to the much-maligned crossover of 1996. Every issue analysed until it's bleeding. You'll either love it, hate it, or wonder what sort of life I must have."

Chronology.Net was created and is maintained for personal use by Darren Duncan. All content and source code was created by me, unless otherwise stated. Content that I did not create is used with permission from the creators, who are appropriately credited where it is used and in the Works Cited section of this site.

You may not copy any text, graphics, layouts, code, or database structure from this site for use in any public forum unless I have given you written permission to do so. However, I encourage you to provide hyperlinks to this site. I have put years of hard work into the content of this website and consider it a valuable asset.

This site is not affiliated with Marvel Entertainment Group, who are the TM and copyright holders of the 'X-Men' and associated characters. Any references made on this site to said property constitutes fair use.